


A Heart As Big As A Whale

by yellow_ferrari



Category: Inside Out (2015)
Genre: Gen, Joy gets jealous, New emotion: Jealousy, So does Riley, These things are related, everyone else also very briefly appears, it's basically a Joy character study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 19:05:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5467670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yellow_ferrari/pseuds/yellow_ferrari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jealousy moves into Riley's brain. Joy tries her best not to be jealous. It does not work. But that's ok, because she <i>learns</i> something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Heart As Big As A Whale

**Author's Note:**

  * For [notearchiver](https://archiveofourown.org/users/notearchiver/gifts).



> Yuletide gift for notearchiver. Hope you enjoy! Happy Holidays!!
> 
> Title from "Minnie The Moocher" by Cab Calloway. (I recommend the cover version by Reuben Hudson on youtube, which was uploaded while I was working on this and he made this song somewhat melancholy, which I didn't expect, but it works!)

She's not green. Somehow Joy had assumed she would be green. Common wisdom and all that. But she's more pink. Magenta, maybe? And she has long, curly, bright orange hair. And she's here now. In Riley's brain. Her name is Jealousy and they are all just going to have to deal. 

There was never any kind of warning that Jealousy's arrival would be imminent. She had just appeared. Boom. At least that's how it had seemed to Joy. But Riley _had_ been acting weird lately. Behaving in a particular kind of way. She'd been feeling unfamiliar feelings and the gang in her head wasn't sure how to deal with them. Was this the beginning of the dreaded teenage years they were warned about? In any case, they were overwhelmed. Riley had been irritable and aggressive and actually kind of unpleasant on occasion. Joy was sure Anger could handle this, doing what he always does, throw a tantrum, spew fire out of that blocky little head of his. But Anger had been ill-prepared. "This is something else", he'd said, "I've never felt this way before and neither has Riley".

It had started with _Charlotte_. She was a new girl in school and somehow, annoyingly, she was good at everything. She was a natural at hockey. This had pissed Riley off, even though she'd never been the jealous type about hockey before. But there was something different about Charlotte. The boys liked her, she was pretty and funny and laughed at all their jokes. She even got good grades in class. Riley's Emotions had **had** it with Charlotte, to be honest with you. Because Riley had had it. Riley couldn't even look at this girl without this new Emotion flaring up. This very new, curly-haired Emotion that had now manifested and appeared in Riley's brain. 

Joy was worried. A new Emotion showing up was an unprecedented event. They had all arrived in Riley's head all those years ago, the core gang. That was it. Newcomers were just not a thing that _happened_ here at Chez Riley. It was always just the five of them. Herself, Joy and her colorful brigade of warriors for Riley's health, safety and happiness. Sadness, Disgust, Fear and Anger. They were a good team. At this point in Riley's life they were working like a well-oiled machine. And now there was an interloper here and she was magenta and had orange hair. Hrrrmph.

Joy was the first one to speak. Because of course she was. She was Joy.

"Hi! Who are you?"

Joy specifically employed her biggest and brightest smile to welcome the new arrival. But nothing. No answer from the mysterious magenta one.

"I'm Joy. These are Sadness, Disgust, Anger and Fear. We're the gang. You're in our hood."

Still nothing. Just some puzzled glances around the room, which sent an ever so slight ripple through her orange curls.

"We're in Riley's head? You know? Little girl, blonde hair, heart of gold, excellent hockey player?"

On the mention of Riley's name, the new girl finally stirred.

"Riley?", she said, in a voice that sounded, to Joy, quite annoyed. Already. Again. Everything within Joy bridled against this newcomer. Joy had been nothing but friendly and cheerful to her and yet she seemed constantly ticked off. What was she doing here? Was she gonna be here for good? And what... was she _for_? 

"I'm .... Jealousy".

She said that like she had never said that before. Which she probably hadn't.

"And I think I'm here for Riley. Because I think... she needs me."

Oh, great. Joy totally knew what Jealousy was. The concept was not foreign to her. Green with envy, that sort of thing (hence the surprise at Jealousy's funky coloration). Riley had read about it, so of course the denizens of her brain had learned about it, too. Riley had even experienced other people being jealous of her. But she had never _felt_ it before. Riley was such a good girl. Smart, brave and wonderful. She liked what she had and what she was good at and had never felt envious about anyone else's posessions or achievements. Until now. Was their lovely, glorious little girl changing? Was Jealousy changing her? Joy wasn't sure she was a fan of that. To be quite honest.  
But Jealousy was here. Apparently she was needed, because the existing Emotions couldn't handle Riley's new feelings on their own anymore. They needed reinforcements. Whoever the hell decided that. 

Joy had always been a go-getter sort of person (errrr... Emotion. Manifestation in Riley's mind). She wasn't unafraid – nobody was, least of all Fear – but she always tried her hardest to not let her trepidations show. She had been through a lot recently, with Riley, they all had. A young person's mind, it turns out, is an unrelenting whirlwind of emotions and it never, ever stops.  
But Joy always put on a brave face. And a smile. Because there is almost no situation in life that can't be improved by and made easier and more _joyful_ with a smile. And there was nothing Joy loved more than smiles.  
For all intents and purposes, Joy was the boss. The other Emotions listened to her and sure, they worked as a team, but someone had to make the final decisions. And ever since the infamous incident when Joy and Sadness had to make their way through Riley's inner workings and watch all her Islands crumble, Sadness had become a reluctant second-in-command. She was surprisingly good at it, too, because her gloom provided a nice balance to Joy's effervescence. Everything in life needed a balance. Especially brains, it turns out. Joy had learned something from the incident, too. She had a _great_ team behind her. Everyone was so smart and instinctive and good at their particular thing - and Riley needed them all for her to function in the proper way. The little-girl-with-a-heart-of-gold way.

Remember when Riley read the Harry Potter series? Joy remembers vividly. It's one of the happiest memories Joy has. But it's also one of the saddest memories Sadness has. And ask Disgust about Dolores Umbridge. Go on. Ask her! The point is, they all read the series along with Riley. They were all needed to process it, to process all the Emotions. Joy remembers Quidditch and the sensation of flying (she remembers making Riley whoop and cheer in delight!). She remembers Harry, Ron and Hermione being the best of friends, she remembers the magic of Hogwarts and all the classes, the magical creatures and the Great Hall at Christmas. But Sadness remembers Sirius falling through the veil and Hedwig being shot down. Fear remembers the spiders. Oh god, why did it have to be spiders? Anger remembers how it felt when Hogwarts was under Death Eater control and how furious he was when Harry went off camping for ages instead of saving the school.  
But what mostly sticks out, in Riley's mind, when she thinks about Harry Potter, is the Joy. She loves the stories and the magic and she always smiles when she thinks about it. This was Joy's doing. Joy, the boss. Joy took control of the Harry Potter series and it is now one of Riley's core memories in Joy's arsenal. But she never could have made it without her team. 

So Joy was determined to make Jealousy feel welcome. To make her part of the team. She felt it was her responsibility as the boss. And... wait... did it seem to be working? The new girl was thawing. She had started to move around and touch every surface, lingering for a moment by the core memories. She was taking in her surroundings. Riley's brain. Her new home. Because that much Joy knew – once you made it into the command center, the chances of you ever leaving again were slim to none. Whether Joy liked it or not. 

"She's a good girl, yeah? Riley? A good person?"

"Absolutely! The best!" 

Joy wanted to make sure that Jealousy knew that. Knew that Riley's Emotions had served her well and had worked hard, along with the little girl herself, to turn her into a great person, with a big heart and bright and sparkling personality. A smart girl. _Their _girl. Riley.__

__"I am not here to turn her into a bad girl", Jealousy continued. "In fact... I think I am here so that Riley keeps being a good girl. I am here so she understand this new feeling and what to do with it."_ _

__Riley's Emotions all looked at each other, confused at this unexpected turn of events. Fear let out a squeak._ _

__"But I am going to need your help."_ _

____

Jealousy, it turns out, was actually quite fun once you got to know her. She was odd and not really all that talkative (she only said what needed to be said, but what she said was always very smart). But she was a natural fit for Riley's brain. And she showed the gang what Jealousy was even _about_. It wasn't a bad thing. It was a neccessary thing. When you get jealous, you realize that you want something. And then you can put events in motion to get that something.  
Maybe you just needed to see someone else wear that really cute dress and look _really good_ in that really cute dress and get a little bit annoyed about it – to realize that really, you want that dress and you want to look cute in it, too. Then you can go and spend your pocket money on that very dress. Jealousy is only ever really dangerous when you overdo it. Which is why she warned her new friends to keep an eye on her so that she didn't let it get out of contol. And her new friends all came through. 

Anger took to Jealousy like a duck to water. They went on beautiful, ear drum-shattering tantrums together. And don't even get them started on Riley's incendiary diary entries about Charlotte and what else the new girl had done that was just 'SO UNNECESSARY OMFG JEEZ'. Fear was naturally more careful, but even he couldn't resist Jealousy's quirky charm. Disgust, even though it may seem like she never liked anybody, genuinely got along with Jealousy. Those two together could do quite the snarky damage. Riley's sarcasm had never been this sharp. And Sadness just always displayed genuine heart-eyes every time Jealousy was called into action. And boy, was she good at action! 

Soon, new girl Charlotte wasn't the only fire Jealousy needed to put out. There were girls in YA novels that Riley desperately wanted to be. There were even girls in real life San Francisco that Riley desperately wanted to be. Sometimes she wanted to be a bird. Or a tiger. Sometimes she just wanted your garden variety cute dress. Or sometimes someone wasn't paying Riley as much attention as she felt she was owed. Jealousy grew hella busy over the next couple of years. But she was so great at it. So, so great. She'd turn blatant envy into ambition and Riley always learned something. Jealousy was just ... really freaking great.

"Every episode of Jealousy is just an opportunity for self-improvement", she would say. 

And Joy realized something about herself, too. She had been jealous of Jealousy. And because Jealousy was such a rockstar in explaining what she was all about, Joy realized too that she had been jealous because she needed to better herself. To become a better boss. A better Emotion.  
She realized something else, too, something very important. Riley was still the same person. The same girl they all loved. Only now she had one more Emotion living in her brain to face everything life could throw at her. The world was only ever gonna get more difficult to handle. She was a teenager now and naturally that was a scary, confusing time - she was growing and evolving and just as Joy had learned to handle her Jealousy, Riley would too. Her big, beautiful heart had not grown dark. It had just made some space for a new, pretty awesome, friend to move in. And there was really no reason to be jealous about that.


End file.
